Skating

Compassion is the basis of morality-

Here is the flat-out, honest truth you have been searching for your entire life: You are going to screw up eventually.

Everyone, You, me – the dude picking his nose in the car next to you  Make many mistakes, daily.

A few times in the not so distant past, I have lamented painfully about self-compassion. Self-compassion (loosely defined) is the extent to which you treat yourself with kindness. Self-compassion differs from the likes self-esteem (its critical to note this), which is how good you feel about yourself.  Self-compassion determines how well you spring back from adversity during the course of the day. Like getting down on ourselves when “things” go sideways Treating ourselves and others with kindness, makes it infinitely easier to recover from harmful experience(s).

Daily Meditation:

When our sole focus is intent on protecting our self-esteem, we can’t afford to look at ourselves objectively, honestly and with a pure heart. We fail to acknowledge the need for improvement, because it means acknowledging weaknesses, shortcomings and maybe – That we screwed up somewhere in our past

CultFit Skating


Aburrimiento

Is life not a thousand times too short for us to bore ourselves-

With our attention spans dwindling every second this Holiday season, our impatience increases twofold.

Feeling stuck in the moment  Painfully listening to a co-worker’s weekend escapades in Templeton, Iowa, waiting in line for a cold latte that arrives ten minutes too late  The more agitated we feel and the more agitated we become. Stuck with no cell access in a morning meeting, no Twitter on our gadgets, our anxiety increases with the slow passage of time. What can we do during these painful moments?

My cure for “boredom” is to make life interesting, stimulating and fun. Maintaining an emotional balance also requires finding the time for “boring” meditation practice, resting my mind and body

Daily Meditation:

Recognize your boredom this morning. This is all I ask of you before the Holidays set in, settling in to agitate and overwhelm us. When we start practicing now, before we sense ennui enveloping our bodies and spirit? Awareness is a beautiful antidote to boredom.

*It’s also a great method to not getting injured during the winter months*

CultFit Bored


Armonía

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory-

What does our inner self sound like when it gently whispers to the world? My inner self, sounds like peace – and swearing, swearing then peace – something to that extent

It’s interesting to witness someone in the throes of exploring the sound of their authentic self during yoga class, even while changing a newborns diaper (anything). Very often we will ask the instructor, a dear friend or our mother in law, what they think is going on:  “Hey – Do you think I’m…?”  they, too frequently responding with, “Yeah, you’re probably right …”  Or, if we don’t ask, we just make assumptions based on what’s happening within our mind(s), based on the worst case scenario(s):  “I guess I just suck at yoga … Damn dirty diapers!

This deflating inner dialog leads us away from our true authentic self.

Peace, is calling us home through these trying moments in our lives. We can say “Fu*k it” and choose to ignore peace, continuing on the same path that created the resentment, the bitterness. We can choose to partially ignore it, and partially listen to it (men have perfected this tactic), leaving ourselves sitting perpetually on the fence, giving ourselves halfheartedly to the world 

Daily Meditation:

Or, we can choose to listen to ourselves, honor our deepest truth(s) and begin to do “things” – Differently.

Be well this weekend and please take care!

CultFit Self


Love After Love

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott

CultFit Light


Am (I)

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I’ve ever known-

Who are you?

A simple question, asked so very often, implying that there is actually a plausible answer. Almost as if our being were a fixed “thing

Who am I?

The irony that lies neatly at the heart of this question, is that the more we seek to identify who we are, the more fragile we are likely to become. The emphasis shouldn’t be on discovering who we are but on creating what we would like to experience in life.

Who defines you?

Our identity should be seen as an evolving process, rather than a static snapshot in time. Embrace a flowing sense of self – You.

Daily Meditation:

How different would life be, if rather than asking who am I We contemplated how we’d like to engage and live – Life?

CultFit I